Mike Hubbard's apologist-in-chief now wears his crown

The Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives is dead -- or convicted of a dozen felonies and facing jail.

Long live the Speaker of the House.

Montgomery has spoken and nothing has changed. Not really. Former Speaker Mike Hubbard was charged, convicted of crimes against the people of Alabama and stripped of his office. And Tuesday the House Republicans voted -- informally but weightily -- for his replacement. They picked Rep. Mac McCutcheon.

The king is dead. Long live the king.

Because nothing has changed.

Nothing.

McCutcheon, a Republican from Huntsville and chairman of the House Rules Committee, is about as Hubbard as Hubbard himself.

He was there when Hubbard was initially indicted on all those counts of violating the ethics law he and his fellow Republicans had created. McCutcheon stood up to defend his friend Hubbard - with nothing to go on but blind loyalty. He assured Alabamians Hubbard could have done nothing wrong.

Nothing has changed.

Rep. Mac McCutcheon (Paul Gattis)

But McCutcheon didn't stop there. As the case against Hubbard progressed -- after emails were made public revealing just how greedy and gross Hubbard's begging for money had become -- McCutcheon introduced a bill in the Legislature that would make it harder for prosecutors to investigate public officials, or to ever hold them accountable for their crimes.

His bill, with all the Orwellian irony Montgomery could muster, was supposed to create something he called the "Permanent Joint Legislative Committee on Taxpayer Accountability."

But people who knew what was in it called it the "Star Chamber Bill."

It would have set up a legislative committee that would micromanage all agencies, and approve spending requests for departments including the attorney general and the examiners of public accounts -- agencies that must have the independent authority to look at public officials.

It was all part of the plan of attack by a number of lawmakers in the days leading up to the Hubbard trial, a plan to centralize more power in the already over-powered Legislature, to thwart attempts by law enforcement to force those Legislators to abide by their own laws, and to punish those who would take hard looks at those leaders.

They were simply trying to protect themselves and each other from their own self-interested actions.

It was an offense in itself. Unless transparency is a joke. Unless ethics was a lie. Unless accountability really is just an Orwellian ruse used by political strategists.

Today's decision is not official, but it is darn near the same thing. McCutcheon will be likely be named speaker when the House comes back in mid-August for a special session to consider a lottery.

"I'm humbled by the faith and confidence that my fellow Republicans have placed in me, and, if elected as Speaker, I pledge to preside in a manner that treats all members of both parties in a fair and honorable manner," McCutcheon said in a statement.

Which is the right message - particularly for those who haven't paid attention to the past.

But it's the wrong message from the Republican Party. And the state.

Mike Hubbard is guilty, but it is clear the party the Hubbard built is still Hubbard's party. And it's clear the leadership of that party is more interested in holding onto the power he built than in distancing itself from a convicted criminal.

Or his crimes.

Mike Hubbard, convicted felon, is still the guy, and his apologist-in-chief wears his crown.